Unintended Pregnancy - Results

Results

Pregnancy has risks and potential complications. On average unintended pregnancies result in poorer outcomes for the mother and for the child, if birth occurs. Unintended pregnancy usually precludes pre-conception counseling and pre-conception care, and delays initiation of prenatal care. The great majority of abortions result from unintended pregnancies.

Results of unintended pregnancy include:

• Prenatal care initiate later, and less adequate. Adversely affects health of woman and of child and less preparation for parenthood. Delay from unintended pregnancy is in addition to that from other risk factors for delay. Unwanted pregnancies have more delay than mistimed.
• Unintended pregnancies preclude chance to resolve sexually transmitted diseases (STD) before pregnancy. Untreated STD in pregnant woman can result in premature delivery, infection in newborn or infant death.
• Preclude use of genetic testing to help make decisions about whether to become pregnant.

• Women with an unintended pregnancy are more likely to suffer depression during or after pregnancy.
• Poorer maternal mental health
• Increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy
• Reduced likelihood of breastfeeding, resulting in less healthy children
• Lower mother-child relationship quality (see also Maternal bond)
• More likely that mother smokes tobacco (about 30% more likely in the US) or drinks during pregnancy. Which results in poorer health outcomes and additional costs for welfare system. (see also Fetal alcohol syndrome, Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder)

Children whose births were unintended are:

• Greater likelihood of low birth weight, particularly for unwanted pregnancies. This may be through increased risk of preterm delivery. In the US, eliminating all unwanted pregnancies would reduce rate of low birth weight by 7% for blacks, and 4% for whites, helping to decrease the large disparity in rates for whites vs. blacks.
• Greater infant mortality. If all sexually active couples in the US had routinely used effective contraception in 1980, there would have been 1 million fewer abortions, 340,000 fewer live births that were unintended at conception, 5,000 fewer infant deaths, and the infant mortality rate would have been 10% lower.
• Likely to be less mentally and physically healthy during childhood,
• At higher risk of child abuse and neglect,
• Less likely to succeed in school,
• More likely to live in poverty,
• More likely to need public assistance,
• More likely to have delinquent and criminal behavior. (see also Legalized abortion and crime effect)

Unintended pregnancies lead to higher rates of maternal morbidity, and threaten the economic viability of families.

Women with unintended pregnancies have less education and participate less in the workforce than women whose pregnancies are intended.